[wrenny]

So my puppy is about 9 weeks now. He bites like a maniac. It's very hard to play with him because it really really hurts and sometimes draws blood.

I've read some articles about bite inhibition where we are supposed to ignore him because then he knows he loses a playmate for playing too rough but thats kinda hard to ignore him when you have to watch him so closely.

Is this just with the baby teeth? How do you guys handle it and correct it? Is this normal?

 

[onyx'girl]

give him something else to bite and when he does bite you, yelp, so he knows he was too hard. Littermates do the same thing and they do know how much pressure they are biting with. After teething (4-5 mos) they don't mouth nearly as much as that teething stage. After Onyx lost her last tooth it was amazing how she quit that. I think the pressure of the teeth coming in is hard on them. Ice cubes are helpful, too, crunching on something that may soothe the gums at the same time. Good luck for the next few months!!

 

[krystaltiger]

Oh how i remember those days - and how on many occassions i wanted to "unadopt" my now wonderful 3 year old pup.

Anytime he bites, try making a high pitched squeal - kinda like one pup will do to another. This signals that the play is too rough.

If he bites, turn your back on him - he will hopefully learn quickly that that kind of play is not acceptable.

I was also told if mine ever bit on the hands or anything like that to put your finger down on their tounge - it doesn't hurt them, but its not pleasant either -

Once the baby teeth are gone, its all better - not that the adult teeth can't hurt if they are like my little "Jaws" when she wants really good treats that I might have in my hand LOL

 

[wrenny]

Turn my back and there goes my ankle.

We have been doing it so I guess we will just continue to do so. Thanks.

 

[Elaine]

I literally had scratches up and down my legs and holes in all my work scrub pants from my devil puppy biting them every time he got near and he would bite everything and anything that got near him. I would make a loud noise to express my disapproval and then promptly shove a puppy toy in his mouth. I rapidly began to think of puppy toys as pacifiers. He's 5 mos old now and no longer bites. It takes time for some puppies to develop the mental capacity to understand you don't like the biting, but if you are patient, you will be able to channel this energy into something more positive without squashing his adoreable personality.

 

[Kefir]

Teach him the "Pet" command. Hold up a treat (1/4 of a dog bisciut - not a big treat) say "Pet" then pet him 3 times and then give him the treat. Repeat 5 times a day for two weeks. Two weeks later when he goes after you to bite you he knows the "Pet" command. You say "Pet" and he stops and looks at you and you pet him.

Priceless.

Henry is now 2 and I still use it. When he goes a little crazy in the yard barking he knows that I can't stand it. I go in the yard and tell him to be quite. He starts to run around like crazy cause he wants to bark. I tell him "Pet" and he stops and comes to me and I pet him and calm him down and all is well.

 

[K9Kaos]

We used the 'yelp' and ignore method when not actively playing with Heidi.

When playing, we would substitute a toy for our arms/legs/hands/etc and let her take it.
If she persisted, we went back to the 'Yelp' and playtime over!

She caught on very quickly, and after teething was over, this was no longer an issue anyway!

Enjoy the puppy time while it's happening... it passes quickly!

 

[MaggieRoseLee]

Since this puppy biting is so common with our GSD's (and I know it's worse with my GSD puppies than any other puppy I've had, so you aren't crazy), there is actually a sticky up for reference.

Just click on This Site...

 

[SuzyE]

to answer your question-YES and both of mine thought all the regular ways to try and get them to stop were a JOKE!Neither of my mutts hardly bit at all, Cesar & Paige (ESPECIALLY) were horrible. Finally had to retaliate on Paige & then she took me seriously.

 

[JFoster]

Zeus bites too hard when I play with him but it's my own fault. I've always played very hard with him so it's the way he is now. When he plays with the kids he doesn't get as crazy but he still hurts them because he's so big now. But they know to yelp and he calms right down...

Jon.

 

[wrenny]

How old is zues? How did you play rough with him? Random tug of war games or like getting on the ground and wrestling with him?

Only rough games I play is tug of war and thats very rare. Mainly I just play fetch with balls. He still hasn't grown out of biting. I'm hoping the teething will fix that. He is about 16 weeks now.

 

[Ardatha]

Shadow is now six months old and he rarely ever bites when playing. We did all the things listed when he was younger and a regular little aligator! He's finally finished teething and if he puts his mouth on me at all, it's very gentle. He never puts pressure anymore. The most effective method I found was the yelping and ignoring. You don't have to ignore them for long, just a few seconds would often be enough but you have to totally ignore for that time. I would turn away from him, cross my arms and let my mind go blank so I wasn't even thinking about him. They seem to really have a knack for reading body language and this really seemed to get through to him the best. Having lots of chew toys around and substituting was also good, but the ignoring seemed to work better than anything else.

 

[wrenny]

I think mine is starting teething since I see some blood on chew toys but hasn't stopped his biting yet.

 

[zyppi]

Originally Posted By: wrennyTurn my back and there goes my ankle.

We have been doing it so I guess we will just continue to do so. Thanks.

That's a GSD for sure!

Gently - that's gently - close your hand around his muzzle and say 'no bite' and give him a soft toy.

He's not finished teething.

He needs to chew. Get him a marrow bone - about two inches long. Freeze it and give him one a week. Might make his poop a tiny bit runny but it's good for his teething.

Get him a big, not puppy size, nylabone too.

He'll grow out of it - just not as soon as you'd like.

 

[DHau]

I'm going through the same problem. My darling furball is a demon. lol. Frozen rags and frozen carrots help for a while but not a cure. We try to redirect her biting to a toy but she would rather go for clothes and our hands. Shaking her by the scruff of the neck is not working either. She just comes back for more or barks at us and then runs around like a maniac.

She loves playing tug and I am wondering if that is something that should be discontinued because she enjoys pulling on our clothes.

 

[wrenny]

Originally Posted By: DHauI'm going through the same problem. My darling furball is a demon. lol. Frozen rags and frozen carrots help for a while but not a cure. We try to redirect her biting to a toy but she would rather go for clothes and our hands. Shaking her by the scruff of the neck is not working either. She just comes back for more or barks at us and then runs around like a maniac.

She loves playing tug and I am wondering if that is something that should be discontinued because she enjoys pulling on our clothes.

When I can't take it I just tell him to stay and stay. Then give him a treat but I don't want him to start using the biting as a way for me to start the sit/stay so he gets a treat. I only use that when he goes crazy with biting.

Mine loves balls so when hes biting me, I try to find a ball, get all excited about it and throw it. He doesn't care for other toys, rags, or anything when hes biting me but since hes fascinated with a ball, most of the time he will stop biting and chase that.

I'm so used to it that it doesn't even phase me anymore. Hopefully when teething is done, he'll be a softie.

 

[Romance]

I don't think puppy nips are an individual breed problem. It's a puppy thing regardless of breed. Also I think a bite is something that bleeds and often needs stitches....puppy nips are different. they pinch and sometimes draw blood but don't need stitches.

 

[3K9Mom]

Dh and I always carried stuffed toys in our pockets and had them stashed EVERYWHERE in the house. Pretty much, every time Campeche opened his mouth in that menacing way that only a puppy can, we popped a toy into his mouth and said "Toy! Good Toy!" with a happy sound in our voices. Then we played with him and the toy for a while.

[The toys were big (bigger than his mouth, so they were hard to spit out), soft (so we didn't hurt him shoving the toy in his mouth, and harder to spit out), and on every horizontal surface in our home. Literally, we just had to turn, and we had a soft toy to grab and stuff in between that gleaming set of teeth! ]

This showed our pup that there is a better option than attacking our hands and feet, or whatever other thing he was planning to attack. Toys mean that we would play with him and that was fun, and he made us happy doing that. What a win-win situation.

PLUS ...It didn't take Campeche very long to figure out that HE could bring US toys. (which we responded to by saying "Toy! Good toy!" and stopping everything to play with him...at least, for a while...). A lot of time, when he was teething, he just wanted someone to hold one end of a toy and he would gnaw on it for an hour. His teeth DID hurt. But he liked the interaction of us hanging out with him.

He went from being menacing and causing bloodshed to instigating productive play. How cool is that? That's the great thing about GSDs. It doesn't take them long to figure things out. We just have to show them how.

 

[wrenny]

So I started this thread 3 months ago and my puppy is going through major teething right now.

The update on biting? Still there. Hasn't slowed one bit.

We are still redirecting. Theres not much else we can do. Hopefully it will end soon.

 

[Ardatha]

It shouldn't be too long now. He should pretty much be done with teething by the time he hits seven months. That's where Shadow is now and he never 'attacks' with his teeth when we play. If he does happen to get his mouth on my skin, he immediately spits me out and goes to play with a ball or chunk of rope. You should start seeing results 'any day now.'